


We Still See the Same Stars

by PuddiChu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galaxy Garrison, Gen, Kerberos Mission, Personal Growth, Possible Eventual Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2018-08-11 23:35:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7911907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuddiChu/pseuds/PuddiChu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>“Buck up, kiddo. Before you know it, it’ll be your turn to go off on your own adventure,” Sam said. “Just remember: if you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great. Keep your head up, Katie. We’ll be back soon.”</em><br/> </p>
<p>Katie Holt's life is turned upside down when she learns that the Kerberos mission has failed. Unable to accept the loss of her father and brother, she sets out to find the truth. She'll tell you it's in the Holt genes to be stubborn. Sam and Matt wouldn't go down without a fight, and neither will she. Not even the prospect of breaking into a government facility multiple times will deter her. (The nosy pilot in her crew, however, might push her to the breaking point more than a few times.)</p>
<p>Completely lost and alone in the absence of any other Holt, Katie must learn to summon her own strength, as well as form new bonds with those around her, as she searches for her family. If they're out there, they're looking at the same stars as her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You'll Do Great Things

**Author's Note:**

> Pidge is solely cast as the snarky comic relief in a lot of fics I've seen, but her character is so deep... She deserves much more than that. I wanted to write something that gives a little more insight into Pidge's mind surrounding everything that happened with the Kerberos mission.

The cold cement walls of the Galaxy Garrison never looked very inviting to Katie Holt. Having to be anywhere near the only inhabited building in the middle of the desert made her skin crawl. Every single hair on her body stood on end like it was below freezing outside, yet the sun scorched her exposed skin. A single boxy building sporting a disturbing lack of windows stood recessed inside a heavily patrolled wall, hangars and ATV garages leaned out from all sides; it made the place seem more like a military prison than an educational facility. The entire building screamed _execution zone_  to Katie, but the prospect of space- being able to travel far away from Earth and dancing between the distant stars- made the sullen atmosphere worth it. It wasn’t like she had to be there very long anyway; the entire Holt family had made the trek out into the middle of the desert to bid farewell to Sam and Matt as they prepared the launch to Kerberos.

Katie glanced at each of her family members as she struggled with the emotions swirling in her head. She was excited and immensely proud of her father and brother- she really was, but she also couldn’t help feeling more than a little distraught. There was no telling what would be waiting for the Matt and her father, the two men she admired most, out in the depths of space… or when she’d be able to see them again.

She scratched her nose, a nervous tick she couldn't shake, as she watched Matt unload the few packed bags from the trunk of the car. He probably could've benefited from using the student gym a bit more often.

Not a day went by when she hadn’t spent at least half an hour talking to Matt. Whether it was by phone or passing notes under the dinner table, there was always time set aside for just the two of them. They were inseparable as far as siblings went. Even during the thick of exams at the Garrison, Matt had always taken time out of his busy schedule to call Katie and tell her about everything going on in his life, even if it meant he had to make the call in the bathroom past curfew. Some might call their conversations severely mundane. There were days when all they would talk about would be the stale bread in the cafeteria, or the scalpel Matt had nearly dropped on his lab partner’s foot ( _Really Matt? That’s the third time this month!_ Katie had laughed at her brother’s seemingly ever increasing misfortune.) Katie could admit that he was her rock, the voice of reason when her temper got the best of her.

Mrs. Holt seemed to be struggling just the same as Katie. Her face betrayed her emotions despite her obvious attempt to conceal the demons in her mind. There was a ghost of a smile pulling on her lips, but Katie could see the worry lines gracing her mother’s forehead and the way her eyes were glazed over with fresh tears. She wouldn’t let them fall until long after the boys were gone, but Katie knew the whole drive home would be spent calming her hysterical mother. Mrs. Holt was strong, but she’d witnessed her husband go up into space one too many times to not worry about his safety. She’d watched her husband grieve as news surfaced time and time again about his colleagues never made it back to Earth. Sam had cynically appointed to Garrison catchphrase "act now, think later." It had begun to terrify her that she might lose him (and now, possibly her son too) sooner or later as well.

Katie shuffled her feet in the sand, kicking the small grains with the scuffed toe of her sneaker. She stood beside her mother and firmly grasped her hand, drawing firm circles soothingly on the back of Mrs.Holt’s hand with a silky smooth thumb. Her mother let out a shaky breath before forcing the smile wider on her face.

Katie’s father looked as carefree as ever. He had the family dog, a spry Bull Terrier named Rover, cradled in his arms. The dog was affectionately licking at Commander Holt’s exposed hand as the two swayed gently back and forth. Sam was humming somewhat nonsensically to the dog; Katie recognized the tune of several songs being spliced together. She wondered if her father was at all nervous for the upcoming mission. He always seemed so enamoured with his missions. Either he was fearless, or his love of exploration nixed any unease he felt about being launched into the dark abyss of space. Katie didn’t discount the effect of mystical space peas created by the Garrison chefs either. Who knows what they’d managed to genetically engineer into those things?

Sam looked at Katie, a broad smile reaching all the way to his eyes. That was one of her favourite things about her father; when he smiled, it was with his entire body. His shoulders swayed casually, his eyes proudly displayed three upturned wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, and his eyes shone with the brilliance of an ultrasonically cleansed diamond. He sent her a quick wink. His glasses were askew atop his nose; Rover probably knocked him in the face with a paw amidst the excitement.

“Don’t look so down, kiddo,” Sam chirped. “We’ll be back before you know it.”

Katie paused for a second, debating between feigning ignorance and confirming her emotions, and sighed. “Is it that obvious?”

Matt casually slung an arm around Katie’s shoulder. Thrown off balance by the bag hoisted onto his back, he bumped his hip into hers, sending her stumbling into Mrs. Holt’s side momentarily. With an indignant huff, Katie righted herself and bumped him back with as much force as she could muster.

“What’s the matter Katie Cat? Afraid I’ll come back from space too cool to hang out with my baby sister?” Matt grinned down at her.

She childishly stuck her tongue out at her brother. When it was all in good fun she could never pass up an opportunity to bicker with her brother.  “No! Jeez, Matt. You’ll never be too cool for me. Everyone knows _I’m_ the cool sibling.”

“I don’t know about that,” Matt said. “I am going to be stuck in space for a year with _the_ Takashi Shirogane.”

“Isn’t that your super boring prof from simulator training?” Katie wrinkled her nose, picturing a short, feeble Japanese man sporting a scruffy grey beard.

Takashi Shirogane had been the topic of many late night phone calls, but Katie had never personally met the guy. Everything she'd heard about him was from her brother, who had a dubious definition of cool. Through the many accounts she'd heard of this professor telling the cadets to  _please fasten their seat belts; the simulator is serious_ , Katie had drudged up quite the image in her mind. She imagined this man gossiping with the other instructors by calling their students  _whippersnappers_.

Matt rolled his eyes, a snicker bubbling up from the back of his throat. “He may be boring, but he’s, like, the prof that everyone at the Garrison looks up to. He’s pretty much a celebrity!”

_Wonderful, the crust old Japanese instructor is a celebrity here._ Katie's lip involuntarily curled up in distaste at the thought. The Garrison might just be worse than she thought.

“You told your sister Takashi is boring?” Sam stared at his son in surprise. His eyebrows were raised so high Katie was concerned they would disappear into his hairline.

“That’s not what I meant, dad,” Matt groaned. “I just meant that… I mean he’s so serious about training! But that doesn’t make a very good story for Katie; I might have stretched the truth a little.”

Unable to pass up another opportunity to butt heads with Matt, Katie used both her hands to shove him to the side. He stumbled, nearly tripping over his own feet as Katie goaded, “Liar! You're a liar!”

“I am not!”

“You just admitted it to dad!”

“I didn’t say I lied! I said I stretched the truth.”

“That’s pretty much lying, Matt. Just admit it.”

“It’s so not lying!”

Commander Holt stood at attention- his Commander stance- and cleared his throat. The siblings turned to focus their attention on their father, standing a bit straighter. They’d been conditioned to do that from a very early age. When they were younger, she and Matt liked to pretend that they were military cadets whenever their father called their attention.

“It’s about time we get going, Matt. Takashi will be waiting for us in the hangar,” Sam said, moving to put Rover on the ground so he could properly embrace his wife goodbye.

Matt glanced down at the gold watch on his wrist; it had been his graduation present just this last year (and Katie had picked up a part time job stocking shelves at the corner store down the street to pitch in what she felt was her share.) “T minus two hours and counting, dad.” He turned to face Katie, engulfing her in a bear hug so tight she couldn’t breathe. “I’ll miss you, Katie Cat. I’ll try to write down a bunch of stories to share with you when we get back as long... as my space pen doesn't run out of ink.”

After fighting to break away from breathing in nothing but Matt's pungent body wash, Katie managed to wiggle her mouth free of Matt’s Garrison official uniform. The stiff material was rough against her skin. Her cheek was still pressed firmly into Matt’s chest.

“I’ll miss you too, Matt Attack,” she mumbled as best as she could with her own cheek squished inside her mouth.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

She couldn’t see his face, but she knew Matt was grinning like the Cheshire Cat above her head. If she had full range of motion in her face, she would scowl. “You heard me, you big loser.”

“Be good for mom. I’ll see you in a year,” Matt said, stroking Katie’s hair briefly before backing away to say goodbye to his mother.

Katie stared at her feet and pursed her lips as Matt walked away; she really wasn't ready to say goodbye to him yet. Looking up, she saw father standing there, his arms spread wide to invite her into a hug. She ran forward into his arms, squeezing him tightly for a second before relaxing her grip. He smelled like cedar wood and brown sugar. It would be a year before she would be able to take in his scent, hear his voice, feel his warmth… Katie felt herself beginning to choke up.

“Buck up, kiddo. Before you know it, it’ll be your turn to go off on your own adventure,” Sam said. “Just remember: if you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great. Keep your head up, Katie. We’ll be back soon.”

“Thanks, dad,” she mumbled into his shirt. Her nose was pushed so firmly against his chest it almost hurt. “I’ll still miss you though.”

“That’s only human of you. I’ll miss you too.”

She stepped back to wipe the tears forming in the corners of her eyes with two knuckles, being careful not to poke her eyeballs in the process. There was no sense in crying. She just had to trust in her family and their pilot.

“And I’ll miss you too, Rover,” Matt cooed.

Katie looked down to see her brother kneeling on the ground, getting dust all over his uniforms and he affectionately ruffled the dog’s ears. Rover in turn wagged his tail in the sand, kicking up a small dust cloud that surrounded them. The midday sun highlighted every particle that was kicked into the air as it swirled upwards.

Commander Holt walked over and placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. With one last pat to Rover’s head, Matt stood up next to his father. He saluted Katie, shooting her an obnoxious wink before turning to walk through the front gates. Sam kissed Katie’s cheek once before turning to do the same to her mother. A crooked smile made its way onto his face as he backed away from them. He turned to follow after his son into the Garrison.

“Bye!” Katie called after them. “I’ll see you soon!”

“I love you, Katie!” Matt called. He wasn’t even visible anymore, but his voice still carried out into the desert beyond the Garrison gates.

“It’s time to go,” Mrs. Holt sighed, turning to climb into their car.

Katie picked Rover up off the ground and carried him to the car on her shoulder, cradling him like a baby. She used one hand to jerk the rear door open as the other supported Rover’s weight against her. The dog wriggled in her hands as she moved to place him on the seat. His legs were floundering beneath him as if he was trying to walk on air. Slowly, Katie lowered him onto the seat. Rover sauntered over to his blanket and plopped down. He laid his head on his front paws. After closing Rover in, Katie walked around the car to sit beside her mother in the front seat.

Mrs. Holt still looked concerned. The worry lines on her forehead had not faded all day. Fresh tears in the corners of her eyes threatened to fall at any moment.

“Cheer up,” Katie said, trying to be optimistic for the both of them. “You heard dad. We shouldn’t worry too much.”

Her mother sighed, wiping a stray tear off her cheek. She turned the key in the igniting and the car hummed to life. “You’re right. They’ll be fine.”

_They’ll be fine._


	2. A Sad Day Indeed

All it took for Katie’s life to fall apart was one simple sentence. For five months everything was smooth sailing. She went to school, helped her mother around the house, completed and picked up new personal projects. Now, she could feel all of her aspirations crumbling around her; for as long as she could remember, her family had been her lighthouse, the guiding light in her life that pointed her down the ever brightening path towards her future. Now, it was all falling away piece by piece as she stood barefoot on the cold hardwood stairs of her family home, feet turning icy as she watched the news broadcast from over her mother’s shoulder. The colours on the screen seemed to blur together into a discordant mess before her eyes.

“The Galaxy Garrison mission to the distant moon of Kerberos is missing and all crew members are believed to be dead. The Galaxy Garrison has said that the crash was presumable caused by pilot error.”

Katie could feel the tears beginning to well up. She couldn’t will herself to move no matter how hard she tired; her feet were firmly rooted to the floor as if she was becoming one with the wood beneath her. All she could do was stare at the near blinding light coming from the television screen. The image on the screen shifted to one displaying portraits of the crew members; her father and brother stared back at her, smiles lighting up their faces.

“It is indeed a sad day for all humanity.”

Her small fingers gripped the railing tighter until her knuckles turned white. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Katie knew her family; there was no way her brother and father would have gone down without a fight. They were always one step ahead, moving onto Plan B the second Plan A began to fail.

Slowly gaining back her composure, she began to seethe with anger. No. This was not true. There was no way something like this would happen to her family. The Garrison was lying to her; they were too cowardly to outwardly admit as to why she wouldn’t get to see her family reunited. Perhaps a probe had failed and they'd lost sight of the mission. With her teeth grit together so tightly her jaw began to ache, Katie dashed back up the stairs and into her room, her long ponytail swishing behind her as she went. She skid to a halt directly inside her small bedroom, the last door to the left upstairs, and immediately launched herself right into her open closet, groping desperately for her backpack in a muddled frenzy. Her hand found purchase beneath a long overdue pile of laundry. Wrenching the bag free, she hurriedly stuffed it full. Everything within arm’s reach made its way into her backpack: clothes, laptop, wallet, diary.

Katie paused when it came to the picture perched at the edge of her nightstand. She slumped back into herself as she held the picture in her lap. Tears began to prick at her eyes all over again as she stared down at Matt’s smiling face. The photo had been taken when Katie has wished him good luck at his first day attending the Galaxy Garrison for cadet training. He had been so excited to begin his journey following directly in his father’s footsteps, each day one step closer to walking side by side with the man he admired the most.  Her lower lip was caught roughly between her teeth as she stuffed the framed picture deep within her bag. She pulled one final set of clothes out of her closet before sliding the doors shut. Haphazardly, she tossed the bag, now heavy with what she had deemed as essential supplies, onto her unkempt bed before stripping out of her pyjamas and tossing on the final set of clothes. She paid no attention to if they were clean or dirty; her first priority was going after the lost half of her family. Katie wanted answers and she wanted them  _now_.

Hauling her supplies over her shoulder, Katie crept as silently as she could back down the hallway, making a short detour to the bathroom in between her and Matt’s rooms in order to grab her lone toothbrush resting in the cup by the sink and the tube of toothpaste from within the top drawer. A pang of loneliness hit her again as she stared at the now empty cup. Just five months ago, her brother would’ve been bumping her away from the single sink in their bathroom in an attempt to spit out his mouthful of toothpaste. She fondly recalled a time- one of many- that she’d held onto the lip of the counter for dear life as he’d tried to push her out of the way, only to have him spit his toothpaste foam all over her hair. Matt had spent the next ten minutes lovingly washing the sticky goo out as an apology.

Giving the bathroom one last glace, Katie swallowed the thick layer of saliva that had begun to coat her throat and turned to retreat the remaining steps down the stairs towards the front door. She glanced quickly towards the living room for any sign of her mother. With no indication of her mother’s presence, Katie strained her ears, and focusing on the sound of running water coming from the kitchen, decided to descend the rest of the way down the stairs. Rover was curled up in a ball at the bottom of the stairs. He lifted his fawn coloured head as Katie neared the final step; she placed a finger to her lips, silently pleading the dog to keep his mouth shut as she made her way out of the house.

To be honest, she didn’t exactly know where she was going. In her blind panic, her only thought was to get out of the house and move somewhere, _anywhere,_ that might help her get her family back. She paused on the last step to think about it. The socks on her feet allowed her to skate back and forth slightly on the hardwood. She could head out to find her father’s best friend; he might be able to help her get in contact with them, or at least have some account of communication with the missing Holts from the last five months.

She could also head to the Garrison. Despite not being old enough to enroll herself, Katie had begun to build herself quite the background in technology. Her brother had helped her scrap together her laptop two months before the Kerberos mission took off, and she’d picked up a couple of independent programming projects to keep herself busy. Most recently, she’d been making huge progress on a piece of telecommunications software. With a little bit of elbow grease, Katie was sure she’d be more than capable of managing her way through the Garrison’s technology.  Decided on heading for the Galaxy Garrison, Katie made her way to stepping over Rover when the dog let out a soft, sad whimper.

“Oh Rover,” Katie sighed, crouching down to pat the dog between his ears, “I miss them too. But don’t you worry buddy. I’ll get them back; I know it.”

With a wistful smile, she pressed her hands against her knees and hauled herself upright, straining slightly with the heavy addition of her backpack. Katie softly stepped herself over Rover before scuttling towards the Walnut panel door at the front of the house. Her burnt orange sneakers waited for her on a muted green welcome mat her mom had picked to greet those to step within the Holt residence. She had one foot jammed into a sneaker when Mrs. Holt trudged her way out of the kitchen, coming to rest her hand against the door jam. A mug of tea was held in the other hand, and Katie could see it shaking as her mother stared at her. Tears could still be seen welled up in her eyes, grief evident on the older woman’s face. Katie’s heart threatened to leap out of her chest as she looked at her mother’s haggard features. Her eyes were dull, her lips pulled down in a loose frown, the colour of her skin even seemed to have paled significantly; it was as if the woman had aged ten years in the last ten minutes.

“Katie? What are you doing?”

Katie flinched at the sound of her mother’s voice. Her voice was hoarse, as if her throat was dry and ripped raw.

With a downcast gaze, Katie mumbled, “I’m going to find dad and Matt.”

She could hear a muffled sob leave Mrs. Holt’s mouth. Katie suddenly felt like someone had taken a mace and bludgeoned her chest until it caved in.

“They’re gone, Katie,” Mrs. Holt croaked.

Bile was beginning to build up in Katie’s throat. She began to panic again; her thoughts becoming increasingly irrational as her eyes darted quickly around the room. Despite the fact that it was her mother standing in front of her, the woman Katie would die for without a second thought, she felt like a cornered wolverine; every cell in her body told her to get out of there, to either escape or attack. Katie dug her short nails into the palm of her hands. She could feel the tension building around the base of her neck as her shoulders rose instinctively.

“We don’t know that yet!” Katie barely recognized her own voice, “The Garrison may have some of the smartest people in the world working for them, but they’ve always been lying scum! We can’t trust them!”

Mrs. Holt had been cautiously making her way across the living room, one hand reaching out to steady herself on any furniture within reach. She set her mug down next to the key bowl on the small table beside the front door and pulled her daughter in a hug, resting one hand on the back of Katie’s head and using the other to gently rub rhythmic circles up and down her back. The two women stood there for a minute in complete silence before something inside Katie burst. A desperate wail ripped its way up her throat as tear after tear tore itself away from Katie’s eyes to roll helplessly down her cheek. She gripped the soft peach fabric of her mother’s shirt, ringing the material between her fingers. Mrs. Holt stood still save for the hand rubbing her daughter’s back, a statue in the face of grief.

Katie choked back a sob, “They can’t be gone…”

“Go back to bed, Katie.”

She was tired. Her mother was tired. Wherever her father and brother were… they were probably tired too.  Mrs. Holt carefully lifted the backpack off of her daughter’s back and bent down to ease her foot out of the dirty sneaker she’d managed to stuff it into. One arm placed over Katie’s shoulders, Mrs. Holt guided her daughter back up the stairs and to her room. Rover followed dutifully behind them, another soft whine emitting from his mouth. Katie slowly climbed under the covers, forgoing her pyjamas for the night, as her mother lifted Rover onto the bed. The dog immediately traipsed over to Katie’s side, soft mattress heaving with every step of his little paws, and circled, once, twice, three times, before settling down, his body pressed firmly against her chest. Katie buried her face in the dog’s fur, glad for the calming presence amidst the chaos that had ensued barely half an hour prior.

“Sweet dreams, Junebug,” Katie’s mother gave her head one last stroke before she turned to leave, shutting the door behind her as soundlessly as possible.

Left alone with only her thoughts and Rover by her side, Katie prayed that she would wake up tomorrow and realize it had all been a bad dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like angst! This chapter has been sitting unedited on my computer since the first week of September; I kind of suck at taking time out of my day to edit (and even still I find myself doing a half-assed job.)


	3. The Truth is Out There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A first attempt at reviving this story... This chapter has been sitting completed since December, 2016. Written before we had more information about Pidge's backstory, this is probably more canon divergent at this point.

It took Katie a week before she was able to put her plan into action. She’d spent the first two days grieving, her mind unable to comprehend the fact that she may never see her beloved brother and father ever again. Despite the fact that she did not believe they were dead, they were still missing; the Galaxy Garrison would not lie about that. The next day was spent weighing her options. She’d taken to writing a list of pros and cons for every possible scenario her mind could think of, carefully evaluating the risk to her own safety, the health of her mother, and the speed at which she could get her missing family members back. The next three days were spent unpacking and repacking until she had her entire closet strewn across her bedroom floor. There were items she would deem necessary for her trip one minute, and completely irrelevant the next. It wasn’t like she could get to the Garrison from her house anyway; it would be a trip in and of itself just to get there. The buildings were stationed out in the middle of a desert after all.

On the seventh day, Katie set out early in the morning. Her mother had yet to wake up. The alarm clock beside her bed buzzed at her obnoxiously: 4:30 AM. A cab driver waited for her down the street from her house. Katie glanced around the early morning scene set before her as she headed out the door and towards the awaiting cab driver. One of the incandescent street lamps above her flickered, its warm lighting ebbing and flowing out of Katie’s vision. A squirrel scampered up an Alder tree as she passed by it, reaching for the rear door to the bright yellow car waiting for her.

Katie rested her chin in the palm of her hand, propped precariously on the window ledge, as she watched the scenery flow past her. Slowly, the small suburban town she’d known her entire life disappeared, giving way to a bustling city, filled with bright lights on tall buildings. Along the skyline, Katie could see a hot air balloon ascending into the red tinted sky. The striped balloon, of blue, green, and then blue again, reminded her of the kites she and Matt used to fly out in the front yards as kids. A thick lump dragged itself up her throat as she longingly recalled the memory. In an attempt to swallow it back down, she let out a shaky breath. For the first time in her life, Katie Holt genuinely felt scared. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she couldn’t find her brother and father; or ( _god, could she even think it?)_ if they were, in fact, dead. It caught her in a swirling vortex of her own despair, each sequential thought becoming darker. Katie could feel the panic welling up again. She could feel her hand shaking on her chin; her stomach threatened to jump out from underneath her ribcage. If she hadn’t already been sitting down, Katie was sure her knees would have at least buckled beneath her (if she didn’t pass out, that is.) To calm herself, she focused on the changing scenery. Carefully, she noted how the buildings began to thin out, the hot air balloon in the background becoming more prominent as they neared it. The foreground of industrial buildings slowly gave way to a calmer backdrop of what seemed to be endless mesas. The colours of the city faded into a monotonous blend of brown and beige. There wasn’t even the soft halo of street lamps illuminating the street anymore- if you could still call it a street. The paving ended and Katie jerked as the taxi hauled itself over potholes and stones.

The sun had started to come up by the time the Garrison came into view. Katie could see the road become repaved in the vicinity of the immense prison-like building; she suspected the dirt road was to discourage people from making the trek out into the desert unless they had business being there.

Katie cleared her throat before addressing the driver. “Drop me off over there-” she leaned forward in her seat in order to let the driver see her point off to the side, away from the main entrance; from visiting Matt at the Garrison before, she knew there was an emergency side door there that lead to the staff wing- “and wait by the main entrance for me. Tell them you’re here to pick up a visitor for one of the new recruits.”

The driver tipped his hat to the rear view mirror. As the car pulled up alongside the armoured side door, Katie fished around in her bag for the bare necessities: a communication device that she could strap to her hip, a small x-ray gun that was wirelessly synched up with the communicator, a USB key, and her notepad.

As soon as the cab rolled to a stop, Katie threw the door open and stumbled out. She waved the driver away, waiting for him to disappear from sight before she began her work. Katie had only ever read about safecracking before; everything she had planned out was completely theoretical at that point. It baffled her as to why the Garrison felt the need to protect an emergency door with an industrial flywheel combination lock anyway. The x-ray gun was her first course of action. The small silver gun whirred to life with the touch of a button. An LED laser pointer showed her where the x-rays were scanning. The whole door was ghosted over by the light waves before she pulled out her communicator.

“Are you kidding me?” Katie mumbled to herself. “You’re actually smart enough to shield this?”

She scowled at the device in her hand, the screen displaying nothing but a greyish mass. The wheels in the combination lock must’ve been surrounded by a thin lead casing; that was the only way her x-ray scan could fail.

“Plan B it is then.”

With the side of her face pressed comically against the door, and one hand’s fingertips resting lightly next to her nose, she began to slowly spin the dial. The feint telltale _click_ of the first contact point being hit was felt in Katie’s fingertips after half of a complete rotation.  She pulled her notebook off her hip, and pulling a pen out of the coiled spine, she quickly jotted down the corresponding number to the click. Her pen was discarded on the ground haphazardly as she returned her focus to the door. The dial was rotated again in the same direction, even slower this time; two degrees, four degrees, six degrees; until the second _click_ resonated through the metal. Katie groped for the pen, which had rolled far enough away to be annoying to grab, to scribble down the second number. The next step was spinning the dial halfway around before slowing the spin and continuing on in a clockwise motion. One rotation, _click,_ two rotations, _click_ , three rotations, _click,_ four rotations… nothing. Katie made another note in her book before hastily spinning the dial a few more times, setting it back to a neutral position. The dial was marked with 60 ticks, 60 divided by 3 gave her 20 iterations to go through before she could figure out the combination. Katie sat there for ten minutes, slowly turning the wheel counter clockwise, listening for the two _clicks,_ noting the corresponding numbers, shifting the starting point from three ticks, and repeating the whole thing all over again. It only took her a few minutes of cross referencing data before she had her three magic numbers: 8, 21, 37. With one lucky combination guess, the lock disengaged, and the door heaved open.

Katie smirked. “Score one for the Holts. Score zero for you losers.” 

Hastily gathering her things, she darted inside the building, surveying the hallway. Nothing around her looked familiar. _Great_.

“When in doubt, go left?”

At this point, Katie was tired and hungry to the point of just talking to herself. She’d left so quickly that morning she hadn’t had a chance to even make a piece of toast to eat. It was usually her mother who would make breakfast; she often spoiled Katie with pancakes or a fresh fruit salad first thing in the morning. The sun was fully visible in the sky. Mrs. Holt would likely be waking up soon and be wondering where her daughter went.

“Just get in and get out, Katie. You can do this.”

Aimlessly, she wandered around the halls, looking for anything that looked familiar.

The sound of footsteps set Katie on red alert. She darted around the nearest corner to conceal her position. Holding her breath, Katie waiting until she heard the footsteps begin to fade away before she darted from her hiding place, taking off down the hallway. Which way was she going? Everything looked the same to her. It felt like she just kept turning corner after corner until she smacked head first into something.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing here?” a voice barked from over her head.

Katie slowly backed up. Head lowered, she peeked up through her eyelashes to see one of the commanding officers- the one that Matt had fondly nicknamed Captain Jack Buzzkill- standing right in front of her, his only functioning eye trained on her.

Mouth slowly falling open, she searched in her mind for something to say. “Uh…” was the only thing she was able to get passed her lips.

_God Katie, just pretend to be innocent and maybe he’ll let you off easy. You’re here to get something your father left in his office before the Kerberos mission and your mother asked you to come get it. You got lost. There was an upper level mathematics textbook of Matt’s that was left here and you need to read it now because you’ve heard one too many of his doofy calculus based pick-up lines to not start learning now._

“My father!” she blurts out, still a little frazzled from being found out.

The intimidating man in front of her crosses his arms. “I beg your pardon?”

“Commander Holt. He- his laptop was left in his office before he left on the Kerberos mission. All of our family photos are on there,” she took a breath to calm herself. “My mother sent me to come get it.”

Not one to back down from confrontation, Katie stared directly into the man’s eyes, expression unwavering despite the fact that she could feel every hair on her body standing on end.

Captain Buzzkill- Katie was starting to think it was a very appropriate name for the man- screwed up his nose and grunted in response. “You will come with me, little lady. We’ll have one of the guards escort you to Commander Holt’s office.”

She dutifully followed as he turned to stride down the hallway. He definitely walked like a military trained man. Katie didn’t trust him one bit. Not wanting to walk anywhere near him, she fell into stride a good couple of feet behind him, checking her hip to make sure all her essentials were still on her person.

“Escort Miss Holt to her father’s office; she’s going to grab _one_ thing. Then show her off Garrison property. She does _not_ have the authority to be here.”

The guards saluted in response, motioning for Katie to walk in between them. Captain Buzzkill had stalked off before she can even begin to respond. She stuck her tongue out at his retreating figure; internally, she dared him to turn around and catch her in the act.

The walk to her father’s office was silent. Neither of the guards really paid her any attention. Once they made it through the training facility, Katie began to slowly fall behind the guards. She knew the Garrison schedule fairly well after trying to coordinate many phone calls with Matt; it was due time for the students to be called down for breakfast.

Right on cue, the intercom above crackled to life, an oddly comforting alert tone resonating through the halls. The students were obviously expected to be awake already; there was no way that a sound that low in pitch would be waking anyone up. Dressed in the hideous mandated Galaxy Garrison school uniforms, students began to file out of their dorm rooms, heading towards the commissary. They all pushed past Katie and the guards, giving her the opportunity to slip into the oncoming crowd unnoticed. She began to backtrack until she reached the flight simulator, where she took a right down the adjacent hallway, heading towards the offices of the more military based personnel. Taking into consideration the fact that all the computers would be connected to the same database, Katie ducked into the first empty office she came across, leaving the light off and closing the door behind her as she skittered her way to the monitor.

The tower stationed under the desk hummed as she giggled the mouse. Slower than Katie would have liked, the login screen faded in. She clicked on the main icon and waiting again for the password screen to pop up.

It didn’t take her long at all to get the password to the backup account.

_Maybe Mr. Hot-Shot Officer should consider getting a lock for the desk drawer containing all his keys and passwords._

The desktop hadn’t even loaded yet when Katie began to open the command line. She scanned through all the files, looking for the dates and tags that would indicate anything related to the Kerberos mission. The scan spat back a folder containing a few video files, all labelled with times a few months after the ship to Kerberos had launched. Without hesitation, Katie opened one of the files. The image was grainy and dull, but she could clearly see a Garrison ship docked on the moon’s surface. Nothing looked damaged at all. She was definitely not looking at a wreck site.

“I knew it,” Katie mumbled, a scowl evident on her face.

There was hours of footage at her disposal, but she sure didn’t have hours to waste sitting and watching it all; she maybe had another half hour before the students would be returning to their dorms, and her opportunity to escape with the crowd would be gone.

Fishing the USB key out of her pocket, she bent down to plug it into the computer before setting to work collecting data. She banged her fingers against the business grade keyboard, typing short prompts into the command line to download her evidence. Her eyebrows were knit together, determination set in stone on her face as she waited for the system to complete her task. A government organization should probably use a better operating system than _any_ iteration of Windows, but Katie wasn’t going to complain when she knew the needed commands like the back of her hand.

_robocopy C:\Users\backup\Kerberos Z:\Holtsmaster\Kerberos /mir /z /log:Kerberosdownloadlog.txt_

Just a few seconds before the files were in her possession…perfect! The USB key was unplugged from the computer tower before she could forget about it. She did one last scan through the files before attempting to get herself out unnoticed.

_rstrui.exe_

The pot lights overhead suddenly flickered to life. Katie paused, head jerking up like a startled fawn. She stared back at Captain Jack Buzzkill for the second time that day. Maybe she ought to learn his actual name.


End file.
